Marketing of ginger: A case study of garo tribes of Meghalaya^#

The present paper is an overview of pattern of marketing of ginger by tribal farmers of Meghalaya. The sample of 60 ginger grower and three functionaries taking into consideration one each of village merchant and wholesaler and three retailers were selected from the major market of ginger in East Garo Hills district. The standard techniques to anlyse the data on marketing aspect were applied. The study found that the marketable surplus was higher than the marketed surplus. The major and popular channel of Producer-Wholesaler-Retailer-Consumer was identified in respect to dispose-off quantity as well as the net price received by growers point of view. In price spread analysis again the same channel was found to be sound after the direct channel in which the gap between the price of producer and consumer was estimated at minimum side. Therefore, the study suggest technology intervention to enhance the efficiency some extent more of this popular channel through regulation of price mechanism as well as reducing marketing cost. As study shown the higher marketable surplus than the marketed surplus in the state of ginger, storage and warehouse must be created by the state government on public-private-partnership basis so that ginger grower can keep their surplus safely and can harvest good price in future.